How To Set Goals The Easy Way,
If you're like most people, setting and sticking to goals is a difficult task. The reality is that it doesn't have to be. Goals are great motivators for future success, but what makes them work?
At the end of this post we'll discuss some of the common problems associated with goals and how to identify which type of goal you should set up for yourself based on your needs.
Whether you want to lose weight or start saving money, by following these easy steps you will accomplish what you set out to do!
Write an introduction to an informative and factual blog post titled "Lessons Learned as a Beginner Blogger".
In the introduction, write a paragraph or two about your successes, failures, struggles and mindset as a newbie blogger.
In the post start off with some basic tips and advice. Write a few lines (3-5) points on making money blogging, creating an email list and how to be consistent on what you are doing. Make sure to end this section with a guarantee that you will release more content in the future (as seen below).
Write up another blog post titled "How to Promote your Blog".
Think about ways outside of social media where people can be introduced to your business or brand. It could be attending events, posting flyers around town or giving away free stuff at events. If you don't know how to market your blog, this is a perfect opportunity to teach lessons learned and mention that you will be releasing a more in depth training series soon.
Write up another blog post titled "The Best Way to Start a Blog".
Include all of the resources (free and paid) that you've used over your blogging career. Write about anything that you find important such as: WordPress, hosting, plugins and writing relevant content.
This is just an example of how one might go about setting three goals for themselves. You are free to use these examples or write your own however it best fits in with your way of living life.
Identifying the problem
Goals are great motivators for future success, but what makes them work? According to a study from the University of Scranton, being able to identify goals that push you beyond your normal performance is extremely important. This means that if you set a goal to write one blog post per day, it won't motivate you enough over the long term. Instead, try setting a goal of writing three blog posts per day. This can be anything from informative to funny and should push you in ways that one blog post might not do.
The need for goals outweighs the importance of how they are set and according to research they are highly effective when they are specific and measurable. Once you're able to set specific goals, they will motivate you to produce better work and perform at a higher level.
Setting up your Goals
Goals should be established outside of a contract or binding agreement in order to be effective. If you are signing a contract that stipulates, "I the Business Owner hereby agree to pay the Business Manager $100 per day for the next three months", this won't do anything for your goal setting abilities. Instead, try setting individual goals in the form of steps that need to be taken towards an end result.
I. Starting Out:
A. Create the Goal: I will set up a blog for the next 3 months that is consistent and high quality.
B. Identify and Assign a Person to Do the Task: I will contact my mentor for help with setting up my blog and that person will be involved in every step of the process.
C. Define/Prove Action Steps: I will send an email to my mentor with a list of all of my goals, including dates they need to be accomplished by and how they will be measured (see sample below).
D. Establish Measurement: Each day, I will write one new post at least three times. New posts will be measured based on views, comments, likes and shares.
II. Mid-Point Review:
A. Identify Gap Between Expectations and Results: (Before) I expected to reach 100 views on my blog within the next three months; (After) I've only reached 30 views after the first week of writing consistently every day.
B. Identify Successes: I've begun writing a few interesting posts that people have enjoyed reading with more to come!
C. Identify Obstacles: (Before) I didn't set up a blog or collect email addresses from interested readers; (After) I began writing consistently and collected email addresses from people who had enjoyed the posts.
III. Identifying Future Goals:
A. Create New Goal: I will continue writing a number of high quality posts every week, ideally reaching 100 views a month.
B. Identify Person to Assign the Task: My mentor will continue to be involved in every step of the process and set more goals for me to accomplish.
C. Define / Prove Action Steps: I will send an email to my mentor with a list of all of my goals, including dates they need to be accomplished by and how they will be measured.
Deciding on the Goal and Setting the Objectives
When setting a goal, it is important to choose something that is highly ambitious but within your reach at the moment. For example, when you're working towards losing weight, it's unlikely that you'll want to set a goal like, "I want to lose weight so I can join the Navy!" This is because it is not in your control and there are few things you can do about it except hope that someone will give you a chance (and this might not even happen).
Your goals should be realistic and achievable in the next few months (or even weeks). Goals that are set far out into the future are often hard to complete and it is easy for people to lose motivation when their goals are too far away. For example, if you want to make $1,000 per week from blogging in the near future, this will help motivate you to work towards this goal.
Setting an objective(s) is important because it forces you to take action on your goal instead of thinking about it every day. Once your goal has been set and some objectives have been created for it, it's time to get started on moving forward.
My goal is to write one new post each week that gets at least 100 views. This is the objective, and it will be broken down into steps (for those who need assistance with this, see my step-by-step guide here). For example, I will:
Send an email to my mentor with a list of all goals. This will be included in the next blog post as well as on a private Facebook group for my followers and mentors.
Write three posts every week that get at least 100 views each (this will be broken down into sections).
On days when I don't have time to write a new post, I will write three informative posts instead.
Conclusion
Setting goals is one of the most effective things you can do to increase your productivity and overall life satisfaction. It can take some time to set them up, but once you're able to start taking action on what you're working towards, it will motivate you for months and even years to come.
It's important that the goals you set are realistic and within your reach at this moment in your life. There's nothing wrong with setting grandiose goals, but try not to get so caught up in how far away they are that it becomes an emotional burden for you. Take a step back every once in a while and look at the big picture as well as what small steps you will have to take in order to achieve them.